Amminex scoops €1.5 million EU clean air funding prize

Danish technology firm Amminex has received EU funding of €1.5 million for its emissions reduction retrofit technology — known as the Ammonia Storage and Delivery System.

The funding comes from the European Commission’s Horizon Prize — a research and innovation competition for companies seeking to deliver solutions to specified challenges identified as key areas for action by the Commission.

Amminex has developed ASDS to reduce NOx emissions in diesel vehicles (Picture: Faurecia)

Amminex was awarded the prize funding following a call for engine retrofit solutions for clean air, aimed at delivering a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions.

The award is intended to ‘spur the development of new technologies that can be applied to existing powertrains to reduce pollutant emissions in real driving conditions’, in order to improve air quality in cities.

The Danish company’s Ammonia Storage and Delivery System (ASDS) works by dosing controlled amounts of gaseous ammonia directly into a diesel vehicle’s exhaust system which activates SCR catalysts to remove NOx.

ASDS

ASDS is an alternative to systems using liquid urea — AdBlue — and can work at low temperatures, Amminex claims, reducing emissions from cold and slow starts, which can be a common feature of urban driving.

Amminex was awarded the funding through the EU’s Horizon Prize

To demonstrate the system’s efficiency, Amminex retrofitted a Euro 5 diesel car with the technology combined with an SCR catalyst from Johnson Matthey, reducing NOx emissions to Euro 6 equivalent levels in real driving conditions.

Commenting on the award, Christophe Schmitt, Clean Mobility Executive Vice-President for Faurecia, Amminex’s parent company, said: “We are very proud to have won this award, which further confirms the potential of our ASDS technology to support clean diesel in real driving conditions.”

To date ASDS systems have been retrofitted to buses in Copenhagen and London as well as fleets in Korea.

Amminex was among the winners at the 2017 National Air Quality Awards for its ASDS technology, where it picked up the Innovation in Air Quality Technology Award (see airqualitynews.com story).

Horizon Prize

Further funding is available through the Horizon Prize — up to €3.5 million — for the development of a vehicle powertrain using conventional fuels to reduce emissions of pollutants in real driving conditions to the ‘lowest possible levels’.

The contest launched in April 2016 has a deadline of 20 August 2019.

According to the EU Commission website the Prize for the Cleanest Engine of the Future will be awarded to participants coming up with a solution integrated in a system prototype, which will be able to demonstrate reduction of emissions of pollutants and lowering fuel consumption in real driving conditions ‘without affecting the operational capabilities of the vehicle’. Further details can be found here.

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